Lotusland's Nursery: Where the Future Happens
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LOTUSLAND NEWSLETTER VOLUME 26 NO. 2SPRING 2017 Lotusland’s Nursery: Where the Future Happens BY PAUL MILLS HE NURSERY at Lotusland is where the future happens and Tthe next generation of plants is started. Nursery operations are one of the many crucial behind-the-scenes operations at Lotusland. Our globally important plant collections rely on the nursery as a fundamental pillar of support for building and caring for these collections. The nursery supports many diverse aspects of Lotusland operations, including producing plants for the gift shop and for the Fourth Grade Out- reach Program; acting as a hospital for declining plants from the collections; and introducing new plants to the garden. They also manage much of the extraordinary Exceptional Plants: Lotusland Auction & Sale event, to be held this year on Saturday, October 7. It’s hard to be sure what existed at Lotusland in the way of a nursery when Madame Ganna Walska bought the property in 1941. There are remnants of The greenhouse at Lotusland is the backbone of nursery operations. Housed in this climate-controlled Continued on page 2 environment are plants in varying stages of development from sprouting seeds to plants ready for the garden. IN THIS ISSUE Lotusland’s Nursery: 1 Japanese Lantern Exhibit 9 Cacti and Cocktails 15 Where the Future Happens Begins the Preliminary Phase of the Mother’s Day Tea and Tour 15 Japanese Garden Renovation Director’s Letter 4 A Compost Tea Party 15 ADOPT-A-LANTERN 9 Lotusland Featured in 4 A Focus Tour of Lotusland’s Compost Garden Design Magazine Members’ Family Day 10 Tea Program Exclusively for Garden Lover Members Horticultural Happenings 5 In Memoriam: 12 Collections News6Bruce Wingfield Van Dyke June Solstice Twilight Tour 16 1922–2016 The Golden Fuchsia Summer Bounty Dinner 16 New Employees 13 Lotusland Welcomes 6 LotusFest! 16 18 New Docents March for Science and Earth Day14 Thank You to Our Garden 16 Virginia Hayes Retires 7 Help Make Lotusland’s 14 Champions, Garden Visionaries, Donor Profile: David & Judy Jones 8 Wishes Come True Garden Stewards and Garden Guardians Giving Life Insurance 8 Lotusland Celebrates: 14 One of the Most Satisfying Ways to Donate Avant Garden New in the Garden Shop 17 2 The LOTUSLAND NEWSLETTER systems that are in place to protect is published by these valuable plants. Ganna Walska Lotusland Lotusland propagates from many 695 Ashley Road of the plants that date to the original Santa Barbara, California 93108 commercial nursery on the property 805.969.3767•www.lotusland.org that belonged to Ralph Kinton Stevens 2017 BOARD OF TRUSTEES in the 1880s. We have produced second Connie Pearcy, President generations of the two oldest Jubaea Daniel Bifano, Co-Vice President chilensis (Chilean wine palm) on the Crystal Wyatt, Co-Vice President property that tower over the Sycamore Ian Fisher, Secretary Canyon gate. We grow seedlings of the Mick Thomas, Treasurer centuries-old Dracaena draco (dragon Belle Hahn Cohen trees), although it’s sometimes hard to Geoff Crane tell where Stevens’ end and Ganna Lesley Cunningham Walska’s begin, and we have a handful William Daugherty of saplings of the stately Monterey Dorothy Gardner This Zamia integrifolia was grown from seed cypress of the Great Lawn. Suzanne Mathews received from Montgomery Botanical Center in As plants senesce (deteriorate with Mimi Michaelis Coral Gables, Florida. age), they often become vulnerable to Eileen Rasmussen attack from pathogens or pests. It is George Schoellkopf Continued from page 1 important for these plants to be identi- Caroline Thompson a greenhouse (the foundation) that fied early so an attempt can be made to John Van Donge burned in the 1964 Coyote Fire at the save them either by bringing the entire Yasmine Zodeh north end of the property. Prior to our plant to the nursery or by propagating current greenhouse, two dilapidated wood from seed or a cutting. It was recently Lifetime Honorary Trustees Merryl Brown and glass greenhouses were in its place observed that a large plant of Euphorbia Robert J. Emmons that could possibly have pre-dated 1941. canariensis on the main drive had lost Arthur R. Gaudi Current nursery facilities consist of its roots because of oak root rot fungus Kisa Heyer one greenhouse, various shade struc- (Armillaria sp.). In this case, there was Michael Towbes tures and a couple of hoop houses that no hope of saving the entire plant so are at best adequate, but need updat- cuttings were taken to the nursery and Gwen Stauffer, M.S. ing. The nursery is dependent upon re-rooted in pumice beds. Executive Director volunteers for maintenance, watering, Through Lotusland’s many collabo- Rebecca Anderson, M.A., CFRE weeding and plant production, and rations, we often receive seed or young Director of Development they alone produce almost 3,000 plants plants that are new to the collections or needed for the educational outreach have a more detailed provenance. Some Diane Figueroa, CPA program. All the plants in the nursery of these seeds or plants may not be Director of Finance are tracked by the curation department, destined for the garden for another ten Bob Craig and we continually update the security or more years, needing to be nurtured Director of Marketing Tyler Diehl Director of Gardens and Facilities Dorothy Shaner Director of Public Programs Steven Timbrook, Ph.D. Director Emeritus Printed by Jano Graphics Lindse Davis, Design Mission Statement We preserve and enhance the unique historic estate of Madame Ganna Walska, care for and improve its collections, and develop its conservation and horticulture programs, so they educate us, inspire us, and advance our understanding and appreciation of the importance of plants in our lives and in the life of the planet. Encephalartos seedlings destined for the Garden Shop. 3 and grown in the nursery. For example, Lotusland is part of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Plant Rescue program, and we received 20 confis- cated seeds of a rare central African cycad 11 years ago that are still being grown to a size that will be adequate to plant in the garden. Lotusland has a long and close rela- tionship with Kirstenbosch Botanic Garden in Cape Town, South Africa. Many plants have been grown here from seed provided by Kirstenbosch dating back to the early 1990s, including Strelitzia reginae ‘Mandela’s Gold’ that is found at the top of the Parterre behind the Main House. We received this seed in 1997, just three years after the initial introduction of this gold-flowered form of the bird of paradise. In 2011, thanks to a generous dona- tion from Lotusland benefactor Paul Glenn, three individuals of a critically endangered South African cycad were Lotusland’s nursery provides succulents that are given to the students who visit with the Fourth Grade purchased from Kirstenbosch as part of Outreach Program. a species survival program where the money from the purchase of these from MBC including Zombia antillarum, northwesterly most limit of the range plants will directly benefit the plant in the zombie palm, and Copernicia alba, of this species in Taylor County, Florida, the wild. These plants are being grown the Caranday wax palm, which were near the Panhandle. in the nursery until they are large grown in the nursery and are now on Plants with known provenance, or enough to go into the garden. display in the Palmetum. field collection data, provide the most Another important collaboration is Recently, we received seed from scientific, educational and conservation with the Montgomery Botanical Center Montgomery Botanical Center of Zamia value to botanic garden collections. (MBC) in Florida. MBC is known for its integrifolia, which is the only cycad Lotusland has been part of two joint extensive research on palms and cycads native to the United States, with a range cycad collecting trips to Mexico with with the majority of its plant collections that stretches from Florida, south into MBC and Mexican institutions in 2001 consisting of wild collected material. the Caribbean. Although not new to to collect plants of Ceratozamia and in Lotusland has received a number of our collections, what is interesting 2004 to collect seed of Dioon. Plants and palm and cycad seeds over the years about this seed is that it came from the seeds are treated differently upon arrival, but they were nurtured in the nursery for years until they could be incorporated into the cycad garden. In 2011, the nursery at Lotusland produced seed of the critically endan- gered cycad Encephalartos heenanii for the first time ever in the United States —one of our nursery’s greatest accom- plishments to date. So far one plant has been shared with the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, and we plan to share one with MBC in the near future. We are in conversations with colleagues in South Africa about repatriating some of these plants to the wild. The role of a botanic garden will always be that of a place for pleasure and relaxation, but plant conservation depends on botanic gardens, and botanic gardens depend on their nurseries to help safeguard global This shade house provides filtered light for begonias and ferns. plant diversity. 4 Director’s Letter OME OF MY EARLIEST childhood acorn comes the mighty oak. But even memories are of favorite plants the mighty oak—and our majestic Sgrowing in my father’s garden in Monterey cypress—is not immune to southeast Pennsylvania. Red tulips with time and will succumb to old age, pro- yellow and black starry centers lit up ducing its last seeds that germinate into the front garden and astonished me by seedlings to fill the space it leaves how they opened with the warmth of behind.